PGA Targets: DEAN & DELUCA Invitational

The DEAN & DELUCA Invitational tees off from Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, TX Thursday morning, with a handful of the game’s top stars on hand. There are a few ways to build your lineups this weekend, so here are some names to consider from every price range as you get started.

High-Priced

Jordan Spieth ($12,000) – As great as Rahm has been playing, if I am paying up at this level for anyone, I’m spending the extra $200 to get Spieth. This is a course that seems to favor those with course experience, which Rahm does not have, but which Texas native Spieth has plenty. He has made four cuts in four tries here, won one last year and came within a single shot the year before.

Zach Johnson ($9,800) – The all-time money leader at Colonial, he has never missed a cut here before and has displayed plenty of upside with a couple of wins. Even if his lack of performances that left him at the top of the leaderboard so far this season keeps you from trusting him in a large field DraftKings tournament, he makes for a solid cash game play with that course history.

Kevin Kisner ($9,700) – He has been in the top-10 here each of the last two years, and has three finishes of T11 or better in his last six appearances. Currently 15th in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and 22nd in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, he has the kind of solid shot-making ability to make this the third year in a row with a top finish at Colonial.

Bud Cauley ($9,500) – He enters this weekend on a streak of four straight top-10 finishes, including a T5 last weekend that started off with three straight rounds in the 60s. He ended the weekend with 18 birdies against just eight bogeys and one double, all possible because of his excellent play with his irons of late; he is now all the way up to 7th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Tee.

Mid-Priced

Tony Finau ($8,700) – Colonial does not necessarily require huge length off the tee, but when Finau is playing well, he is taking his excellence off the tee and converting it into very makeable second shots, and then following through. He ended up T13 last weekend after a missed cut at THE PLAYERS, but he had a low round of 65 – twice. Friday and Saturday, he was scoring on all types of holes, playing well enough to almost completely compensate for an opening round 75.

Adam Hadwin ($8,400) – He hasn’t missed a cut since 2016 and he has finished T5 and T22 over the last two years at Colonial, all of which taken together will make him a staple in my cash game lineups on DraftKings. He has the 21st best Scoring Average on the PGA Tour, which he has accomplished without dominating any one statistical category, showing the all-around excellence that will make him a contender this weekend.

Chris Kirk ($8,200) – A former winner here, he has been a consistent presence on the course since he first played here, never missing a cut. He has been hard to trust recently, but he made his first cut in a month at the Wells Fargo and then followed that up with a T12 at THE PLAYERS. He will look to a course where he has had plenty of success in the past to keep himself headed towards a successful summer.

Brandt Snedeker ($8,100) – He has finished inside the top-20 here several times, meeting the prerequisite for past success on the course, and has had some spotty success so far this season as well, with three missed cuts in 2017, but all seven of his other starts ending with him well inside the top-30, including four inside the top-15. On a course he likes, it’s easy to imagine the better version of Snedeker coming to play, which makes him a nice upside play for your DraftKings tournament lineups.

Low-Priced

Ryan Palmer ($7,900) – Palmer is one of my favorite plays for this weekend. He is a member at Colonial, and this will be his 14th time appearing here for this tournament. He has been inside the top-five here three times in recent years: 2012, 2014 and 2015.

Pat Perez ($7,600) – He is the definition of converging trends that you look for in these more inexpensive options: he has been inside the top-10 here on multiple occasions, including the last time he visited, two years ago. He also is on a tear right now, with four top-25 performances in his last five outings. He is 13th in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and 32nd in Strokes Gained: Putting, consistently leaving himself reasonable approach shots and then letting his short game do most of the work, a formula that should find continued success this weekend at Colonial.

Ben Martin ($7,200) – An under-the-radar selection, I like Martin in larger tournaments on DraftKings this week. Martin has made each of his last two cuts at the Wells Fargo and THE PLAYERS. At both of those two venues, it was his iron play that saw marked improvement, as he finished inside the top-20 in Greens in Regulation % both weekends.

Cameron Tringale ($6,400) – When you are looking for a bargain-basement play, you can do worse than a guy coming off a T9 performance at the AT&T Byron Nelson, and with two straight made cuts under his belt. His play this year has been truly bad off the tee, which accounts for his lack of success, but after his two most recent showings, he is up to third on Tour in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. He is going to want to try to at least keep his ball in play off the tee, but it’ll be his second shot that determines how well he can do this weekend and right now he is looking up to the job.

I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is theasquad) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above.